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lundi 6 juillet 2015

Pebble Time Steel is a classier watch with even better battery life

pebble time steel

Just one week ago we saw the announcement of Pebble Time, a new smartwatch from Pebble on Kickstarter. The Time boasts a brand new design, improved interface, color display, and the same great 7-day battery life. Many people are not fans of the Pebble Time’s “amateurish” design, but it still sold like crazy. Today Pebble has announced a new steel version of the Time.

The Pebble Time Steel looks a lot like the original Pebble Time, except it’s made out of stainless steel and comes with leather and metal bands. It’s amazing how much nicer this version looks. The Time Steel has a few more improvements as well. It’s 1mm thicker than the original Time, which gives it room for a bigger battery, and battery life up to 10 days. No other smartwatch on the market can come close to competing with that.

The display is laminated on the Steel Time, which should make the color e-paper look even better. Pebble has also added a nice subtle texture to the buttons. You can back the Pebble Time Steel on Kickstarter for 0 right now (will be 9 at launch). They’ve put the Time Steel in the same campaign, which means if you already backed the Time you can switch your pledge to the Steel. You’ll have your choice of black, silver, or gold.

smartstrap

Pebble also announced Smartstraps, a way for hardware manufacturers to add tech to watch straps. Things like NFC, GPS, heart rate monitors, and even extra battery can be built into a Smartstrap. Pebble hasn’t actually made any Smartstraps of their own, but they’ve released the schematics for other manufacturers to start building. It’s a really cool idea if it catches on. Are you going to back the Pebble Time Steel?

Pebble is putting up $1 million to support Smart Strap development, here are a couple of early prototypes

smartstrap

Pebble’s introduction of Smart Straps for the Pebble Time no doubt delighted technology fans everywhere, but how is Pebble going to develop public interest and incentive for developers to create them? Their answer was made clear recently: a million fund to help turn developer ideas into reality.

Pebble has issued an open call to any and all developers interested in making smart straps to put their projects up on crowdfunding platforms such as IndieGoGo and Kickstarter. They’re willing to throw money your way to help you reach your project’s funding goals and eventually get your smart strap to market.

They’ll be monitoring the popular crowdfunding sites to find projects on their own, but you can also get their attention via Twitter or devsupport@getpebble.com just in case. Pebble was quick to note that they can’t and won’t promise to fund every project that pops up, so you’ll want to make sure you have a really good idea to get them to open their wallet (and you’ll also probably want to convince them that you actually know what you’re doing, so try to have a solid plan before doing so).

That said, they have suggested they can help in other ways such as highlighting projects to give them more exposure through Kickstarter updates, social media and their website.

xadow

With that, Pebble has revealed two of the earliest smart strap concepts to have spawned. One is from Seeed Studio and their Arduino-based Xadow modules. They offer small modules for NFC readers, OLED displays, GPS and even heart rate sensors. These will be available for developers and manufacturers as development boards to use in prototyping smart straps without having to spend a ton on reiteration and R&D.

spark electron prototype

Second is a prototypical module from Spark.io that can add cellular capabilities to the Pebble Time and use it without the aid of a smartphone. The picture above obviously isn’t indicative of what a final product might look like, but the idea is very interesting and we hope they’ll be able to stuff all of that inside a strap enclosure with some good engineering work. What kind of smart straps would you like to see for Pebble Time? Sound off below!

[via Kickstarter]

Pebble has started mass production for the Pebble Time smart watch, and a look at the first few features [VIDEO]

Pebble has announced that they have started mass production on their latest smart watch, the Pebble Time. We’d love to say it’s fully great news as it means they’re on track to start shipping soon. The catch? They actually aren’t on time with their original deadline — they admitted this was a week later than they’d like to start mass producing, and that this has caused shipment estimates to move back by the same amount of time.

That said, a week isn’t a terrible delay compared to other Kickstarter projects (which we’ve seen could take another extra few months or even up to a year for the project creators to fulfill).

With today’s news comes a deeper look at the new color-filled interface, as well as a point-by-point list of features that you can expect on day one, and what’s coming soon. The video above will give you a look at how notifications, the timeline system and alerts work on Pebble Time, while the one you see below shows you how it handles weather.

Here’s that list of what’ll be ready as soon as you take out out of the box:

New timeline Interface. Review Past, Present, and Future events you care about right from your watch. Initial support includes timeline pins for calendars, sports scores, and weather.

Expanded app storage. Goodbye, 8-app limit! Pebble Time will store as many apps and faces as possible on the watch itself. When needed, an app or face not currently stored will automatically install from your Android or iOS device.

New Sports app. Keep tabs on the latest MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL, NCAAF, and NCAAM scores with an official Sports app. Find which teams you want to follow to get start times, score updates, and more sent directly to your timeline.

Redesigned system apps in color. Alarms, Calendar, Music, Notifications, Sports, and Settings are all redesigned for Pebble Time’s new color e-paper display.

Voice replies to Android notifications. Dictate short replies for app notifications that allow direct text replies.

…and what’s confirmed to be on tap for future updates:

Voice response to Gmail notifications on iOS.

Voice notes app.

Stocks app.

Weather watchface.

Album art view for the Music app.

Not bad at all. Shipping will begin in the second half of this month, with many of the earliest backers starting to receive their orders in the last week of May or first week of June. Get excited!

[via KickStarter]

The first Pebble Time shipments go out May 27th

Pebble has announced that their revised shipping estimates for the new Pebble Time are still on, and they even have a hard shipping date to prove it — May 27th! That’s a mere 5 days from now, and it shouldn’t be much longer beyond that until it starts arriving on doorsteps.

The team also notes that all Pebble Time backers will have their units manufactured by the end of May, with all backers expected to get tracking numbers for shipments by mid-June. This doesn’t include Pebble Time Steel orders which were originally scheduled to arrive late.

We also get an early look at the Pebble Time management app for Android and iOS, as well as new video demos showing how you organize menus and mange watch faces and apps. One noteworthy improvement in the app is the ability to manage all your apps and watch faces at once, instead of the 8 you were limited to for the previous version of the Pebble.

Speaking of which, the app for Pebble Time will be a standalone app, and the original Pebble app will remain in Google Play for those who won’t be getting the new color screen goodness.

[via Kickstarter]

Deal: Get 20% off Pebble and Pebble Steel smartwatches through Saturday

Pebble Time might be the hottest e-paper smartwatch on the horizon, but if you don’t mind going with slightly dated alternatives then Pebble has a pretty good deal for you today. You can take up to 20% off the cost of the original Pebble or Pebble Steel, bringing their prices to and 9, respectively.

The Steel variant comes standard with a leather wrist strap, though you can add a steel version for an added if you so wish. There are only 2 catches here:

The deal lasts through the end of Saturday only

You won’t be able to say you have the latest piece of wrist-dwelling tech on the market (though it’s still a nice piece of kit)

You can head to Pebble’s site to order one right here.

You can now pre-order the Pebble Time for $200 at Best Buy

Didn’t get in on the Pebble Time Kickstarter? You’ll be happy to know that the retail pre-sale has kicked off exclusively at Best Buy. 0 will get you a color e-paper smartwatch that’s bound to last days instead of mere hours.

The hot new feature for Pebble is the Timeline, a system that delivers the information and notifications most important to you when and when they make sense. Appointment coming up on your calendar? Timeline will show it to you first before reminding you about a dinner later that evening. If your favorite sports team just got finished playing a game it’d probably decide to show you its score before anything else.

Pebble Time will also deliver more rich watch faces and apps thanks to its colored UI, a microphone for dictating voice responses and more. Best Buy has them in White, Black and Red, so take your pick and place your order in anticipation of its arrival (which Best Buy currently expects to happen on July 22nd).

Mobile Roar 98: Google Play Music goes free, Pebble Time first impressions, and cracked phones

Streaming music services are a hot topic these days, especially those with free options. So what does Google do? They make Google Play Music radio free with ads. We also get to talk about Chris’ first impressions of the Pebble Time, and his story about breaking yet another phone. Thanks for watching/listening!

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